[asia-apec 242] Cause and APEC

[daga]

Cause and APEC
by Luis V. Teodoro
The Manila Times
10 November 1996

It's called the art of putting one's best food forward, and Filipino
governments are among the most adept at it on the planet.

For the sake of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit this November
22 to 26, classes are being suspended in Metro Manila and Subic schools; the
ordinary filthy and dark streets of Manila are getting new street lights;
the roads to and from the airports, not to mention the airports, are getting
spruced up, including that road from the Ninoy Aquino airport which
ordinarily is ankle-deep in raw sewage; urban poor communities are being
demolished so the delicate sensibilities of foreign guests won't be
offended; Dick and Kate Gordon's Subic is being repainted and whitewashed,
and the former hub of its honky tonky past, Magsaysay Avenue, lined with
stalls to testify to the hold of the enterpreneurial spirit on that town,
thanks to the Gordons.

These efforts are not original with the Ramos government, Ferdinand Marcos'
rule having been partial as well to concealing slum colonies behind
white-washed fences, to putting flowerpots at street corners, and even
painting wilting grass green whenever visitors came, such as during the Miss
Universe contest, the inauguration of the Heart Center, and the World Bank
conference, which all occured in Manila in the '70s.

Wherever the poor are legion, rulers who either can't or won't half halt
poverty settle for the next best thing, and that's to hide it from foreign
eyes. But the Ramos government is doing something else aside from putting
make-up on the country's grimy face.

For the sake of APEC it is also imposing curfews in Central Luzon,
surveilling activists, labelling even such elite organizations as Sandigan
terrorist, stopping foreigners criticial of APEC from entering the country,
preventing media from reporting the elaborate security preparations in
Central Luzon, cracking down on the leaders of anti-APEC groups, and lately,
threatening to sue striking unions for economic sabotage.

Two weeks before the APEC summit, the Ramos government is on the verge of
panic, with Fidel Ramos momentarily reverting to the Ramos of old by
ordering "preemptive measures"  to prevent the disruption of APEC. Such
disruptions are likely to be in the form of demonstrations, as well as a
"people's caravan" anti-APEC groups are planning. Against these
"disruptions" the government is preparing to launch its own rallies as well
as setting up road blocks.

A situation fraught with peril, primarily that of the government reverting
to authoritarianism, is in other words developing, and APEC is the cause of it.

In the next few weeks indeed, as the militant groups opposed to APEC
continue with their preparations, and as the unreformed police and military
whose anti-people, pro-foreign traditions have never been uprooted respond
with increasing violence and arbitrariness, a garrison situation in Manila
and Subic, with APEC venues being ringed by troops to keep protesting groups
out, is likely to develop.

After APEC the government is unlikely to draw in the authoritarian fangs it
is currently baring. The renewed surveillance of leftist groups and the
harassment of their leaders are likely to continue if for no other reason
than the fact that the summit has demonstrated to the Ramos government the
inherent contradiction between its democratic pretensions and its commitment
to the new world order that APEC would help bring about through the opening
of the Philippine market and trade liberalization. 

None of the country's Asean neighbors have the problems with aligning their
countries with the new world order that Ramos now has to confront. The
threat of strikes, people's protests, counter-conferences, and media
critical of what government is doing as well as of APEC itself are absent in
Indonesia and Malaysia, where authoritarian regimes reign, and where, as a
consequence, any activity antithetical to government aims can be curtailed
through the simple expedient of throwing people into prison.

The fact is that the formal dismantling of authoritarianism after 1986 has
made free expression possible in the Philippines despite government efforts,
and this is being amply demonstrated today. The Bill of Rights has become an
obstacle to the Ramos government intentions, which is to totally bring the
country into alignment with the new world order.

Bill of Rights or no Bill of Rights, however, any Philippine government, as
was demonstrated by the Marcos government, and as the Ramos police and
military are demonstrating, can create the conditions for authoritarian
rule-- through.

The danger in the current situation lies precisely in the escalation of the
atmosphere of crisis that is building up as the APEC summit opening draws near.

While publicly the functionaries of the Ramos government may appear to be
panicking, the present situation may be just what the Ramos government needs
to realize its dreams of a protest-free Philippines in which government can
do what it pleases when it pleases. A crisis could develop in the coming
weeks to justify the imposition of emergency measures that could, Bill of
Rights or no Bill of Rights, lead to the undeclared martial rule civil
libertarians have long feared is part of the Ramos government agenda.

In the last four years one of the questions often asked is what is likely to
be the excuse to justify precisely the kind of crackdown on militant groups
that is now taking place, as well as the postponement of the 1998 elections,
most other means having failed. The Mindanao excuse was once thought to be
the most likely. APEC is beginning to look like an even likelier candidate
for that distinction.-- Philippine News and Features